Why Americans should be happy that we probably won't ever have a lot of high-speed railOur population centers are widely spread-out, which makes it too expensive to even seriously consider connecting places like Chicago and Los Angeles with high-speed rail. And the process of installing it anywhere would be so unacceptably disruptive to the private property rights of so many people that it's just not going to happen, period. Specific installations? Maybe. But no national network. And that's OK, because we'll find plenty of other ways to save energy and travel more efficiently.

DARPA and NASA decide it's time for a 100-year business planSpecifically, it's a plan to get humans into deep space exploration -- en route to other star systems. The 100-year business plan is a woefully under-used business technique. It's easy to forget about the long term (or even the medium term) when business is booming, but as the disastrous economic conditions of the last couple of years have really made it obvious that short-term thinking (and debt) have become a seriously toxic recipe. In a good sign, though, it looks like some companies are getting their acts together: Ford, for instance, is getting rid of debt as quickly as it can and in the process giving investors the impression that the company might actually stick around for the long term.

High-speed video...played in slow motionSomeone recorded a pass through a train station from a high-speed train, and seeing it in slow motion looks a lot like a the "bullet time" sequence from The Matrix

Make it once, share it oftenThe BBC is going to let the rest of the world start using the iPlayer, a platform for distributing television and radio programs. It makes a lot of sense -- once the programs have been produced, the only real marginal cost is to the bandwidth required to send those programs around the world.

Then and now15 years ago: Rental VHS tapes. Now: Streaming movies on demand to a wireless home network, into a game console and onto the television. Don't even try to consider what 2025 will look like unless you're ready to start really expanding some horizons.

What government should do to influence employmentThe Saudi Arabian government is trying to encourage businesses there to employ more locals, rather than foreign workers. But at what stage is government policy like that counterproductive? An interesting editorial makes a fine comment, applicable practically everywhere: "The business of government, any government is to create the circumstances in which the economy can grow and expand, with the inevitable increase in employment opportunities".